Mini Cheesecakes

When Patrick and I were registering for the wedding we had a fairly good idea of what items we wanted to add to or upgrade in our kitchen. We researched these items and didn't have too much trouble selecting them. Finalizing our dishes (both formal and casual) did take a bit of back and forth but once decided we didn't look back!

Today we're featuring a "for fun" registry item -- mini springform pans! Crate and Barrel's Kaiser Nonstick mini springform pan to be exact (just 4.5" in diameter). This was a request from Patrick; in his words, it was so he could perfect cheesecakes without having to make large ones.

Imagine Patrick's excitement when we received these! Off I set to make us some mini cheesecakes. I ran across a perfect recipe from Kraft. It has a base recipe for regular cheesecake and then several "stir-in" flavors to personalize them. For our first venture into the world of mini cheesecakes we made regular and mocha.

Mini Cheesecakes from Kraft
   prep 20 min | total 5 hr 5 min | makes 4 mini cheesecakes
Ingredients
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
3 pkg (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

Directions
   Preheat oven to 300°F.
   Mix cracker crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and the butter; press scant 1/3 cup crumb mixture onto bottom of each of four mini (4-1/2-inch) springform pans. Bake 7 min.
   Beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour one-fourth of the batter (about 1 cup) into each of four bowls. If desired, add one of the Stir-In Ideas to each bowl of batter. Pour over crusts. Place pans on baking sheet.
   Bake 40 to 45 min. or until centers are almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around rims of pans to loosen cakes; cool before removing rims. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Stir-in Ideas: For each one-fourth portion of batter, stir in one of the following before pouring batter over crust and baking as directed.
   Apple Pie: Stir in 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon. Top baked cheesecake with combined 1/2 cup warmed apple pie filling and 1/2 tsp. brown sugar. 

   Cherry: Bake mini cheesecake as directed without Stir-Ins. Just before serving, top with 1/3 cup cherry pie filling.

   Chocolate Chunk: Stir in 1 oz. Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, chopped. 

   Chocolate Royale: Stir in 2 oz. Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted.
   Citrus: Stir in 1 tsp. lemon, orange or lime juice; 1 tsp. flour and 1/4 tsp. grated lemon, orange or lime peel.
   Cookies and Cream: Stir in 1/4 cup chopped oreo Cookies.  
   Mocha: Mix 1 tsp. Instant Coffee granules with 2 tsp. hot water. Stir into batter along with 2 oz. Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted. 

   New York: Stir in 1/4 cup Sour Cream and 1 Tbsp. flour.

   Peanut Butter: Stir in 2 Tbsp. peanut butter and 1 Tbsp. milk. 

   S'Mores: Stir in 3 Tbsp. milk chocolate chips. Top baked cheesecake with 1/4 cup Miniature Marshmallows and 1 Tbsp. broken Honey Grahams.

We each had a quarter slice of both flavors! We served with a dollop of whipped cream.

Next I imagine we'll try peanut butter or s'mores. What would be your favorite stir-in?!